Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Movement Museum is part of an ongoing series out of the Works Progress group in Minneapolis:

"Works Progress is a loosely affiliated group of creative collaborators who bring unique skills and experience to our collective work. A few of us make up the core Works Progress crew, while others contribute on a project-by-project basis."

They have multiple participatory projects, this one is of interest to us in particular. It offers not only the opportunity for the public to engage on the spot, but to capture and share the results:

"Movement Museum is located in and around a pop-up field station that can be assembled anywhere in about 30 minutes. It is an experiment with the concept of a mobile museum, one where research is performed, recorded and projected as part of a large-scale, public composition."

We look forward to learning more about their progress, and iterating our own platform for speed of set-up and sharing.

Monday, March 14, 2011

When you start a new book—at least, a new book you want to read, –present high-schoolers excepted who are being forced to read Billy Budd for their required summer reading lists—you crack open hope. You anticipate the journey ahead with excitement. Hope is unfurled before you like a clean, unbroken highway that disappears deliciously into the horizon line. That first sentence presumes innocence. As a reader, you haven’t been sullied yet by a plot that disappoints, dialogue that rings untrue, or the ending that didn’t lived up to the beginning. There is always hope that this will be the best thing you’ve read this year, or the guilty pleasure you’ve been waiting forever to indulge in, that invites you to load on the don’t-give-a-fuck mental calories. Great first sentences are like a clear bell ringing. They engage, amaze, and are the promise that you’ll be sorry when the last sentence ends.

So I’ve compiled here a shrine to some of my favorite beginnings. Maybe you’ll agree, disagree, or want to add a shrine of your own. If so, visit sfmobilemuseum.org and set down your favorite start.

Note: In addition to participating in our show, Kathy is a writer, knitter extraordinaire, and the force behind Princess Animal.

What's the definition of a gentleman?Somebody who knows how to play the accordion, but doesn't.

I have a shrine to something, maybe music.It is where I like to make my votive offerings,in hope of gaining favor with a supernatural something, maybe music.Imparting refuge in its patterns, it is my portable sanctum.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Another Mobile Museum? How dare they! In London, a mecca of museum culture, the University College museum research group is pairing up with an architectural team to develop their own platform. This came to us thanks to Elizabeth Merritt, from the Center of the Future of Museums.

“In the process of working towards our new model for museum… what we would like is a small portable space that can house two or three people and one museum object, that is not a tent, that is in some way magic, appealing, thought-provoking, enticing…” - Celine West

Their platform for testing exhibits is being developed by appropriately named “Mobile Studio”:

“Mobile Studio is a young London-based architectural practice. The practice is actively involved in cultural and socially aware projects within the public realm. It is a design-orientated practice, and places a strong emphasis on collaborative working and public engagement.” - Mobile Studio

By the way, if you're wondering about how this project come to be out of a major university, the UCL has long innovation roots. They were the first secular university in London that also admitted women on the same basis as men, starting in 1826.

We look forward to hearing more from our friends across the pond. What do you think it will look like? How do you think it will be perceived by the public? What do you hope the museum will learn from this?